Workforce Connection wants businesses to use it. All they want. Anytime.
And the best part of the offer is that the career agency's services are free.
That's the message brought to business owners attending the July 27 meeting of the Greater Chiefland Area Chamber of Commerce by Linda Keyton, Human Resources Recruitment Specialist with Workforce Connection's Chiefland office.
Keyton assured business owners and managers, “Everything we do is free.”
She said the agency can handle job postings. “And we can market your job,” she said.
Applications can go directly to Workforce Connection's collection center where they will be assessed to match the right person with the skills sought by a business, she said. “In a screening process we can do testing to be sure they have those skills,” she said, mentioning such things a computer skills, and various software programs. And the agency's Chiefland office has accommodations where employers can interview job candidates.
“And for training (of employees) we can write a grant that can pay 50 percent of the cost,” she said. For newly hired workers there is on-the-job training money available.
Keyton said Workforce can also help set up businesses as community service sites to match those who want or must perform community service with an opportunity.
One important program Workforce handles is the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors Work Opportunity Tax Credit, she said.
Under the program employers may qualify for federal income tax credits of $5,600 for veterans unemployed six months or more to $9,600 for hiring disabled veterans by Jan. 1, 2013. Tax-exempt employers may qualify for credits of $3,640 for hiring veterans unemployed at least six months and $6,240 for disabled veterans.

Lou Elliott Jones

Linda Keyton, Human Resources Recruitment Specialist with Workforce Connection, was the speaker for the Greater Chiefland Area Chamber of Commerce meeting on July 27.